Take With a Grain of Salt
by Jav-chan
Summary: Futuristic AU: She supposed that on a good day she would admit that she loved him. Too bad those days were few and far between. Much too far. Inu/Kag Updated - Ch. 2 Ear Tweak: "Thrice damned bastard."
1. Meddlesome

**Believe it or not this is actually a bit inspired by the beginning of Wall-e. Also the world of Basara. An awesome manga.**

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**Take With One Grain of Salt**

**I. Meddlesome**

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He was following her.

Did he really think she was that stupid, that simply because she was human she couldn't sense him? Kagome bit her lip and resisted the urge to scream. She was so tuned to the specific feel of his unique youki that it was almost impossible not to. She could feel his smugness, could almost imagine the way his lips were curved into that almost irresistible way that caused one fang to poke out in a crooked manner. She could just picture the heated look that would always accompany it and would make her feel in ways that she would rather not think about. Just like she could recall the searing kiss that shook her to the core. One the bastard had _stolen _from her.

He was probably laughing at her.

She flexed her fingers, frowning when her joints popped. This last search was proving to be just as pointless as he had said it would be, but she would be damned if she listened to that silver haired demon (and she did _not _mean that in the literal sense!). Snarling, she kicked the rusty door viciously with her booted heel, taking a small bit of satisfaction when one of the rotted screws broke. She stiffened at the small thud that came from behind her, but was steadily resolved to ignore it. She still had four more points to check before sun down, and she really had no desire to be caught outside when another storm hit.

Kagome still remembered the last time she had been forced to seek shelter in his apartment due to being caught outside after dark. It certainly was not something that she cared to repeat.

She could almost feel his heat at her back, and she was quite content to try and continue with the fruitless charade of continuing to ignore him.

"Do you need help?"

It was through sheer force of will alone that she was able to resist the shudder that threatened to snake down her spine at his voice. Her first instinct was to refuse to respond to him, but she remembered all too well what would happen if she tried that.

Inuyasha Kurosaki was entirely too touchy feely.

"Bite me." The sharp retort was instinctual, and she didn't need to look at him to know that it was a mistake. _Remember, they can smell fear._ She just had to keep telling herself that, maybe it would help her remain calm. Pulling on the sleeves of her leather trench coat she tried to find a bit of warmth against the chill that had nothing to do with the bite in the air.

"Ah, Kagome." His voice was husky and the pads of his fingers scorched the leather of her coat. It felt like a brand on her skin. He leaned forward over her shoulder, so that his lips would brush against her earlobe. "I have waited quite some time to hear those words." There was a promise in his voice, and one that Kagome refused to acknowledge.

Then he pulled away from her and she was suddenly very cold, her mouth dry.

"However, it does not look as if this is the best time to acknowledge it."

His words had her whipping her head around, and his golden eyes were regretful. She looked past him, and only then did Kagome notice the way the sky was lightening to a sick mustard yellow despite the late hour. She swore violently. Within the next hour the sky would darken to a dark purple. Shortly after that the storm would bear down upon the ruins of Tokyo.

"Bloody hell." She snarled, moving away from Inuyasha. She cursed Miroku for his inability to fix her bike. It seemed that her only luck tonight was the fact that all of the points that she had to check before the storm hit—and she _had to_, it would take another month to relocate the hiding places once the storm subsided—were all relatively close to the underground hovel that she called home.

She had hardly moved three steps away from him, hell bent on finishing her work before the storm hit, when the hanyou's arm shot out and snaked firmly around her waist, dragging her flush against him. Kagome bit the tip of her tongue to stop the 'eep' that was just struggling to break free at the sudden contact. Personal experience had taught her that violence would only amuse him.

Staying silent was even worse.

Already his claws were dragging over her leather clad hips as she stood stock still. If she stayed still for that much longer then she would probably find herself flat on her back. She certainly wouldn't put it past Inuyasha to start something like that in such an open space. She suspected that he was a complete and total exhibitionist and considering how chummy he was with her mechanic it really wasn't that surprising. Miroku already had two restraining orders—thanks to her informant— for indecent exposure, not that they did much good. Maybe twenty, forty years ago a restraining order might have done some good, but with the way the world was now…

"Release me." Maybe if she hadn't been pulled so firmly against his body, she would have been able to keep the slight tremor out of her voice that did nothing but elicit a dark chuckle from.

Wonderful. The last thing she needed was a darkly amused hanyou.

For a moment she forgot to breathe when he thrust his hips against the back of hers. It was at that moment that, despite the impending storm and the urgency to finish her search, Kagome knew that she was royally and truly fucked.

She had this impending sense of doom that it was in the literal sense. Again.

She closed her eyes and shuddered (one of these days she was going to make him pay) when the long tip of his fang grazed over the shell of one ear.

"Bastard." Her voice was harsh and she could feel him smirk against her skin. "I need to go and—"

"—find the missing shard? Better hurry, those things are so difficult to find. You better find it soon."

It was times like this when she really hated him. Kagome really hated his silver hair and his wonderfully hot golden eyes. She hated the fact that she had a secret fetish for silver and gold (she blamed this entirely on Yoko), and she really hated the way that all it took was his nearness for her blood to heat and her breath to quicken. She hated those times when she saw the cracks in his seductive, sometimes cold façade and saw a man who would never feel accepted. It didn't matter that there were times (when she was suffering from her disease of random bouts of insanity) when she told him that she loved him and she really meant it. It didn't matter that she was there for him on the new moon.

…and thinking about the last new moon really was not a wise thing to do when he tightened his grip on her waist until she could feel his muscles even through the layers of leather.

She gritted her teeth as she forced herself to concentrate on something besides his heat.

"Are you offering to help?"

"Only if I can be of service."

_Damn him_, he was pulling on the high collar of her coat and, _fuck_, was that his mouth on her neck?!

Kagome was proud to say that she didn't scream her rage, and was even prouder when her elbow connected solidly with his stomach, executing enough force behind it to cause him to grunt and take a few steps back.

"For a price, of course." She nearly spat the words out at him, and had an intense desire to claw out his eyes so that she wouldn't need to see the heat in his gold orbs. Kagome wondered if this gold eyed fetish was a family trait. Before she had been killed her mother had loved Yoko, both his eyes and his ears.

"Of course." A fang poked out over his lip as he smirked. "Don't worry, Kagome." His voice was too warm and too sensuous. "I know how tight money is for you." His eyes racked over her form. "I won't ask for anything you can't give."

Oh, how she wanted, more than anything, to call him the worst type of bastard. The problem was that it would bring her to a place that she wasn't quite ready to go. As much as he irritated and pissed her off, even Kagome would never dare to go to the place that was so sensitive for him. Even she would never dare to call him what others had shunned him for.

At least, not when she really meant it.

She owed Inuyasha too much. Especially considering that he had saved her life more times than she cared to admit.

"You know," she couldn't quite find the courage to look him in the eyes and she hated him for it. She pushed back the folds of her coat to let her fingers brush the hilt of her special dagger meaningfully, "I hear castration is very popular these days." She started to slide the dagger from the small sheathe attached to her thigh. "Care to try it."

To her frustration it only made him smirk sharper.

"You know Kagome…"

Damn it, he was moving closer again.

"…you really shouldn't threaten a man like that. It really gives him no choice but to…"

There were too many times when Kagome forget that Inuyasha wasn't quite human, that he was a something a bit more. Of all the men she could tolerate, only Inuyasha could lecture her on the dangers of threatening a man with castration or attacking his virility one moment and then have her back pressed against the hard stone of a half broken wall. His hands were tangled in the ponytail of her hair and the hand on her hip was possessive before she could even start to register the way his mouth was slanting over hers. She hated herself for the way that she moved against him, for moaning against his mouth and responding.

Kagome tried to think past the feel and the heat of him, tried to find a way to pull away. Damn it if she didn't get away then this storm would sweep it away.

If only she could remember what _it _was.

She needed to get away from him. She needed to look, to step back…she needed to breathe. Her eyes snapped open, blue-gray wide, when she looked over his shoulder to see the mustard yellow sky streaked with purple. _Oh Gods, no! _

She needed to get away. She needed to get back home—no, it was too far away—damn it, she needed to get somewhere safe where she could breathe. Gods, she couldn't breathe. The storm, the—Kagome was only vaguely aware of the violent swearing because suddenly Inuyasha was extracting himself from her. She clawed at her throat in a desperate attempt to breathe (_Oh kami, not like this!)_. Then strong arms were wrapping against her and there was that sensation of being lifted and the tainted wind was stinging her cheek.

"Don't breathe, Kagome. Damn it! Just hold your breath in. Just a little bit more. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—" Inuyasha broke off with another string of curses.

Kagome was only just able to register the order, and stop breathing, when there was the vague sensation that they were traveling faster. Then the darkness danced around the edge of her vision and she buried her face into his chest to try and escape the sudden wave of dizziness.

XXX

She was shaking in his arms by the time he had slid the door's seals into place and turned on the air purifier. The fingers that had curled around the lapel of his jacket during his frantic race back to his shelter were too limp, and she was resting against his chest too heavily.

He didn't bother the effort it took to swear in the various languages he knew. He had too little time to help her. He had seen too many people that he cared for die from breathing in too much of the air toxins, and he would be damned before he saw this happen to her. He didn't bother taking the effort to unzip her clothing as he stripped her. His claws tore through the leather effortlessly and he didn't let go of her even as he turned on the purification baths that Kikyou and Miroku had installed in his home. Inuyasha submerged her in the hot waters and held her head under for the five required seconds and hoped that not enough damage had been done to her lungs to prevent the water's properties from repairing them. It was only when she weakly coughed up the water and opened her eyes to blink up at him blankly that he let out a breath that he hadn't even been aware of.

Inuyasha kept her in the baths until her fingers were starting to prune, his heart still thudding with that terrible _thump-thump_ that he hadn't been quick enough. It was only Kikyou's warning that even the purification baths could be dangerous if a human was kept in them too long that stopped him from keeping her in the bath for the rest of the night. He grabbed a nearby towel, clean from the last time he had been forced to use the baths, and wrapped it around her slightly shaking form as he cradled her against his chest and carefully laid her down in his bed.

Inuyasha stepped away from her for only a moment to strip himself from his own clothes with the same carelessness that he had treated Kagome's clothing before lowering himself into the bed next to her. He didn't hesitate to wrap his arms and legs around her. One hand pressed to her breast for the reassuring beating of her heart and it was only when he was certain that she was breathing normally again that he tucked her head under his chin and pulled the thick blankets over their forms. His ears flicked as the wind howled with the ferocity of the storm. The metal barrier outside his home groaned, but it would hold. It was reinforced enough to withstand a category seven storm and from the groans and howls it sounded like this was only a category five.

So instead of concentrating or worrying about the storm, he concentrated on Kagome's warmth and the wonderful scent that told him she was alive. It didn't matter how many times she would threaten to castrate him for making her life more difficult, at least she was alive.

He hadn't meant to nearly get her killed or to get in the way of her search for the shards, but the damn storm had come quicker than he had anticipated. If he had known, _gods_, it didn't matter how enticing her scent was when she was pissed at him, he had never meant to do anything that would endanger her.

XXX

Kagome knew that when she woke up to warmth and hard muscle that she was in the last place that she rarely liked to be. The wind howling outside told that it wasn't quite yet morning and she would probably be stuck here for another three hours at least.

Lovely.

Her throat was a little raw, she realized, and she didn't doubt for a moment that it was probably a good thing. After all a raw throat was better than being dead. It was only when the arms around her shifted and loosened slightly that she dared to crack open an eye. Inuyasha's golden eyes were warm, not hot which in itself was cause for concern. She could only just catch the concern lurking in the back of his gaze. It almost broke her heart and she would have reached up to touch her cheek if it wasn't for the fact that her hands were pinned between and under their naked bodies.

Naked. Which was something that she would analyze when he wasn't looking at her like that.

"What?"

"I'm sorry." The words sounded almost broken, and his claws were threading her suddenly unbound hair. "I didn't know the storm—" He broke off, as if at a loss for words. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry." The words were mumbled into his chest.

She always had such a hard time looking him in the eye when he looked like that. It was the look that said he was more than a seductive letch. That there was more to him than talented fingers and claws, fangs, and hot lips. It was that look that made her remember that he had actual feelings outside of the sensitivity of his birth and lineage. It made her remember that no matter how irritating he could be that he really did care for her. It was enough to still her tongue, and to allow herself to rest her head against his chest. Hoping that it wouldn't backfire on her she pressed her mouth to his bare skin, blushing when his chest vibrated with a growl.

"You are lucky." He growled into her ear and she shivered despite the warmth. "You are so very lucky that you almost died or you would be flat on your back right now."

She ignored those last words and concentrated on what the hanyou wasn't saying.

"Was it very close?"

"If we had been further away—" The way his voice seemed to choke startled her, but before she could think to question it he was pressing her closer to his chest. "It was too close. Much too close."

Kagome swallowed thickly at everything that he wasn't saying. She had a very uneasy feeling that if it hadn't been for him and his damn seductive tendencies that she would never had made it back to the bomb shelter that she called home. So instead of thinking of such terrifying knowledge she wrapped her arms around his waist as best she could and closed her eyes. The steady thumping of his heart was reassuring, and it was only shortly after he had pressed a kiss to her hair that she found herself drifting off again.


	2. Ear Tweak

**Take With a Grain of Salt  
II. Ear Tweak**

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**Her first reaction, when she had woken up the next morning to the feel of something hot and decidedly wet pressing against her collarbone, was to pull very hard on those ears of his and remind him why, exactly, she hadn't been in a decent relationship in years. Except her lungs burned a bit when she sucked in a breath as his fangs grazed against her skin. Both rumors and experience told her how dangerous it would be to be doing anything too strenuous and Kagome really didn't care to have another brush with death. She nearly whimpered when his claws trailed teasingly up her sides, curving over her breasts, and she suddenly realized how very _naked_ she was. A feeling that was a mix of both excited trepidation and a pulsing ache unfurled in her belly when that hard heat—_kami_—pressed against her. She swallowed thickly and was only able to open her eyes through a pride born of stubbornness.

His golden eyes gleamed with only a touch of concern and far too much heat as he pulled away from her neck to look at her. Her throat went dry, killing any reminder that she had nearly died hours ago, and was it really proper to be doing this when she was still recover—

Then his mouth was sealing hers with one of those wonderful kisses that left her limp and hot. Kagome told herself that it was against her will that she tangled her hands with the long strands of silver hair that tickled her skin. She tried to grasp at her scattered thoughts. There was something, somewhat—_maybe, was it really?—_important that she needed to remember. Something about someone with long black hair and an annoying tendency to be a bit of a bitch—right, Kikyou—who hadn't managed to secure her own dwelling before a storm had hit.

Inuyasha nipped at her bottom lip and she moaned against his mouth, tangling her fingers deeper into his wonderfully silver mass of hair, and she lost herself so completely in the _feel_ of the thrice damned bastard that his hardness was pressing against her inner thigh and her hands were trying to remove themselves from his hair so that she could run _her_ hands over the length of _his_ body as he groped at her breasts.

He wrapped an arm around her waist, pressing closer so that their bodies were nearly molded—_kami, she wasn't going to be able to walk in the morning_—together that had her gasping. It was only when her fingers brushed against the lean muscles of his biceps that she was able to regain her train of thought.

That was right…Miroku had been the one to take care of Kikyou…

_Oh, fuck._

Quite suddenly, Kagome recalled with startling clarity Miroku's too smug expression when she and Sango had come to visit the spiritual teacher-turned-doctor the next day. The damn woman had only been wearing a sheet and only Kouga and Inuyasha's sudden appearance had been enough to distract Sango from trying out a nearby lead paperweight on Miroku's head.

She had meant to sigh as that impending feeling of doom filled her except Inuyasha's—_oh gods—_was brushing against her entrance and it twisted into a rather desperate moan.

"You sick, perverted puppy." She gasped as he once again kissed his way down her neck and nipped at the pulse point at the juncture of her throat. "Inuyasha!"

"I love it when you scream." He growled.

Even though her lungs burned with each gasping breath she took she couldn't stop herself from clinging to him as she cried out. Just the feel of him, his heat, was enough for the painful breathing to become a minor thing as he gripped her hips while he moved inside her. Tears formed at the corner of her eyes when his mouth latched onto the juncture of her throat—really he was like a leech—and he brought her to that delicious edge. For a moment her world narrowed down to him. The feel of him, his heat, his teasing passion, and the way that he made her feel safe, precious and strong, all at once. She loved him for it. She cursed him for it.

His claws trailing over her hips, and the delicious way she couldn't help but shudder, was what finished her and the damn bastard wouldn't even let her scream properly when she reached that star shattering sense of completion. Inuyasha's mouth slanted over hers, his long hair over her too sensitive skin making her tremble in the aftermath, even as she dug her nails into his back.

Kami, she hoped she drew blood.

She knew that he wanted more, but he still withdrew from her and she nearly cried out at the loss. Kagome's eyes felt so very heavy and she didn't quite notice the way that her breathing rasped.

"Open you mouth, love." His hands were suddenly smoothing away her hair, and the bitter scent of herbs filled the air. Opening her eyes, she noticed the yellowed leaves that were burning on a small ceramic plate placed on the bed side table. When had he lit them?

Feeling so exhausted scared her and made her more than a bit bitchy, so Kagome had no problem telling Inuyasha to go fuck himself.

Considering what they had just done she figured he would find it amusing. The slight chuckle wasn't what she had expected, and when she looked up at him she saw that his golden eyes were warm, not hot like before, and worried.

"Open your mouth, Kagome. The pill will make it easier to breathe."

Since the burning in her lungs was really annoying she grudgingly complied, grimacing when the pill half dissolved in her mouth before he could give her water to wash it down. She suspected the pill was the new drugged kind that Kikyou had developed to force her patients to sleep more, stubborn will was the only thing that kept her eyes open even as she reached up, suddenly desperate to touch his ears.

He seemed to know that they were her weakness and moved down the bed a bit, pulling her closer once more.

The surprisingly soft kiss that he pressed to her brow and the silky, short fur of his ears were the last sensations that she was aware of, as the drugged pill and his warmth dragged her unwillingly toward sleep.

_Thrice damned bastard._

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_**Gagh, it's been ages since I've updated in this fandom. Although considering I was on a writing hiatus for a few months…still no execuse.**

**I have a question, for anyone familiar with Rozefire's (not Torenza – I think) fanfiction does anyone know where her Shadow fic went? It's the one where Kagome is treated as Kikyou's shadow and Kikyou dies…Inuyasha dies…comes back to life? I've been looking for this for ages, desperate to try and find it on another website. Any chance?**


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